


All we are is leaves that fall

by unlovelySara



Category: Actor RPF, American Actor RPF, River Phoenix (Actor), River Phoenix - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-02-23 09:41:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2543009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unlovelySara/pseuds/unlovelySara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When the little brook arrives at the Sunset Strip, by now everything has fallen silent: the water caresses anyhow the sidewalk where, until a few hours ago, was wheezing one of the most talented sons that mother Nature has ever seen.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	All we are is leaves that fall

_“So sweet and so soft_  
_So charmingly daft_  
_So young was the matinee idol_  
_Lips of crimson slightly open_  
_As the flash and all fame put to rest”_

— _Matinee Idol_ , Rufus Wainwright

 

**All we are is leaves that fall**

A water rivulet sinuously flows on Los Angeles streets: the rain keeps on falling incessantly, turning the little stream into a stronger and more persistent water flow that begins to slip through all the boulevards.  
When the little brook arrives at the Sunset Strip, by now everything has fallen silent: the water caresses anyhow the sidewalk where, until a few hours ago, was wheezing one of the most talented sons that mother Nature has ever seen.  
During our lives we do lots of stupid things, but that kid has paid dearly the thoughtlessness of his twenty years, and this is a thing that the river will never be able to tolerate.  
In fact he keeps on grazing the asphalt and sees again _his_ fine features contracted in a mask of pain, people not giving him help because his hair has been dyed dark and they haven’t recognized him (in the scale of human values fame and solidarity go hand in hand), the rambling limbs that waggle into spasm, brothers and friends that cling to the phones and the hope that Basic Life Support could save him…  
Who knows what his last thoughts were, who knows if he has realized what was happening to him or if he has kept, until the last breath, that sparkle of childish innocence – of scoffing carelessness – that has always distinguished him… _who knows_.  
  
The sun rises on Los Angeles like a discus of chipped plastic, too detached and unreal to be able to warm a November just begun in such a nonsensical and stupid way.  
The rivulet finally draws its waters back and quickly slips in a manhole, taking away with itself a few withered leaves and the last traces of Rio, the river that could have become a monumental ocean and that instead has dried up all of a sudden, leaving around him just memories and regrets buried by the mud.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this translation isn't too bad: I did my best to write something about River Phoenix, and I hope to have succedeed in doing this.
> 
> -The fanfiction’s title is a verse of a Red Hot Chili Peppers's song, _Transcending_ , that Flea wrote about River.


End file.
